As within, so without shall you be
by SkoRn3d
Summary: Marked as The Beast since ages past; in search of love to change his heart. Possessing a flame unwilling to bend; releasing the rose to seal his end. Sasunaru M for later chapters.


**Hi, this will be one of the only A/N's that I have in it I'll have the disclaimer for the whole fic (not in to repeating myself) and also and express plea to _not go too harsh on me _*falls to knees and begs***

This is like my first story out there so constructive as you can please, if you must say anything at all.  
This fic is kind of a test the waters thing for me, just to see how people respond. The story will follow along the general 'Beauty and The Beast' storyline but there'll be a few things thrown in there for my own sick pleasure ...

So, while I would gladly ste- I mean **buy** Naruto _and_ Sasuke from Kishimoto, I doubt the shameless teme would let me. In light of that I feel it my duty to tell you that I own **_NOTHING_**, not even the laptop upon which this story was written -sad ne?- the words below -however shockingly hideous they might be- came directly from mine own head.

Well, that's the disclaimer said and done ... get to readin' aye

He'd never known the touch of a woman; his father was looking to change that.  
They'd never really been any kind of friend to each other but, Minato wasn't worried, '_Everyone gets along with my Naruto. She'll want him before the day comes._'  
And it was truth. Before the sound of her wild laughter died away. Before the screeching outcry of her voice faded into a numb kind of ringing, Sakura would _want_ Naruto like she had wanted for nothing else.

But they were never meant to be. Loud as she would scream; as much as she would cry, Sakura would _never_ have Naruto.

***********************************

_The rain fell; harder than the nights before ... the wind, was changing.  
They all felt it. They all trembled, knowing that they could not change what was to come. But, perhaps ..._

**KNOCK! KNOCK! ... KNOCK!!**

"Leave the call to your master, boy … have him come down from his high chambers and tend to the guest at his door."  
A confused young lad, standing at the door to his masters palace, did as was bade and left the door unattended while the voice unseen stood and waited, and knocked.

The rain beat against the palace windows; the storm showed no sign of stopping. Sasuke; bundled -as unbelievable as it sounds- in a blanket next to a fire in a room of no consequence stared, shocked and insulted as the noise downstairs continued. Someone had been at his door for the past hour now, disturbing his peace by _knocking_ incessantly at the fifteen foot solid oak doors that was the face of his palace. The next hour dripped by with the worsening storm and _still_ the thing beat upon his door.

Why Choji hadn't answered it yet was a mystery '_Usually that boy loves to answer the door_' the young master thought, and frowned. He rose; gracefully and wondered again for the third time that night what the world had come to, '_honestly, when I must answer my own door?_ _Really,' _he thought. It was disgusting what he let the help get away with.  
Sasuke threw the blanket from his shoulders and waltzed toward the ruckus that had become his front door. He'd have whoever it was outside chopped up and served to the _pigs_ before this night was ended.

"WHAT!" The stench that met his nostrils knocked Sasuke back a few steps. Before speaking again, the vain young Lord covered his mouth and nose with a cloth that had been soaked with vanilla pods.  
Stepping back further, Sasuke asked, "What do you want?"  
The old woman at the door leered at him. "I wish shelter from the storm, young master. Would you give it me? In exchange for _this_?"  
From the folds of her hooded cloak, the old lady brought a rose. Deep as the night, black as the young lords hair and as soft, frail - delicate as her own voice. Sasuke threw his gaze over her; the hands resting on the rotting stick were withered and aged. The shrinking old woman before him sounded thin and in desperate need of the heat his home could provide, but a smirk played along the lines of Sasuke's pale features. He had thought the old woman senile and incapable of speech.

"_Will_ you give me shelter?" The smirk turned abruptly to a look of impatience as her voice changed to match.

"Woman, I would not have set foot in my _dungeons_ nor the gallows out back-" he was seething now as the decrepit old bat began to _growl_ at him.  
"-let alone allow your foul _stench_ to spread throughout my home. Remove yourself from my doorstep wench, before I -"

"It would be in your best interest to _allow _me shelter. It would after all, be the courteous thing to do."

Sasuke stood speechless before the other. His throat seemed unwilling to work. His tongue wouldn't move, he felt no air being pulled into his lungs. No breath to be used as voice. He was completely stunted by the rude woman.  
And then the sounds came. He had thought it was merely the dull ringing of an uncomfortable silence. But the buzzing grew louder; there was no bug around him to explain the noise and the only thing he could see were the smiling lips of the hooded woman before him.

He became all the more confused when the whistling began. The birds; being chased by the storms had not been present in these parts few months. Yet the whistling remained; a low hum of chirping, twittering birds. Or was it … _words_?

Inclining his head to the battering winds, Sasuke listened. The sounds morphed and his eyes panned as the hooded figure before him changed too.  
The whistling grew to whispers; as the wrinkled skin around aged lips stretched and began to smooth out.  
The frame before him straightened as full, lush lips began to move with the words, keeping _perfect_ time.

The lips were the first to stop. Or were they the only things to stop?  
Everything stopped when she began to smile, changing still. Lips moving slowly across the plain of soft, light-brown skin. White hair; falling gracefully despite the rain, wrapping itself possessively around the bare shoulders of a young man now standing in front of him. He had been fooled, it was a trick.  
He opened his mouth to question this _changeling_ discovering that, somehow, he had regained the ability to speak. Fortunately -for him- the young Sasuke was cut off at the beginning of his speech.

"Remember this. Young Lord _Sasuke_. You must promise to remember this night, when you are tortured and _Beast_ly.  
Promise me this; for if _you_ do not remember, _I_ will never see what has become of you."  
Sasuke turned abruptly and coughed when golden smoke blanketed his eyes and invaded his lungs.  
His vision of beauty was gone. The young man had disappeared before Sasuke could apologise and offer him sanctuary from the wind and wet.

He clenched his eyes shut, trying to cling to the image of skin and lips and flowing white hair. Such a thing should not be wondering in rain and wind.  
In vain he continued to clutch at the picture of the man's face. And the harder Sasuke tried, the less he was able to see. Though somehow, through the haze and smoke of his memory, he could _hear_ with perfect recognition.

The whisper of wind. The hum of a voice unknown.

_What was that? What was whispered, while the wind raged and the rain pounded against the inside of his ears?  
__Why hadn't he heard it the first time?  
_"_You _did _hear it Sasuke. You just weren't listening … you never listen remember, when you think it not 'worth' your time."_

"But he _was_ worth it … He was _beauti- _Marvellous, now I'm _talking _to myself."

Sasuke wondered past the fallen blanket; leaving it for Shikamaru to collect in the morning. Hn, maybe he would drag the young bellhop from his bed now and make him beat the blanket clean before allowing the him rest.  
Sasuke made it halfway up the stairs; he had almost made it up to the first landing when lightning shot through his hand and the bright blinding flash stayed fixed behind the lids of his eyes. He stumbled in fright, grasping for the ledge, missing by an inch and falling back. He crashed down toward the bottom of the staircase, landing in a heap of matted fur and pain, and confusion.

Everything was black, heavy and teaming with must. The words screaming in his ears but he could not hear them; the noise of it hiding the signs of his change.  
His vision blurred again and as Sasuke tried to focus on his hands he crawled, panting toward his blanket. His body rigid with cold and shaking from the heat of his flesh.  
The blanket wound itself around his shoulders as he grabbed at it. A flowing magenta he could not see but for the haze of colour around the edges of his sight.

His hands felt heavy, thick. And his skin itched like he'd been rolling in poison ivy.  
The floor felt like it was the roof and _roof_ felt as though it was moving to flatten him against spinning ground. Sasuke clenched the cloth in his grasp as his stomach contracted and grew.  
And as he crawled across the floor of his palace … as Uchiha Sasuke; Prince of this Kingdom, hidden in leaves _crawled_ and wept toward the agonising comfort of his chambers, the voices ceased. The whispers stopped. His mind fuelled by a numb sense of silence. Nothing moved in his stone-made palace. Not one - _thing _- moved. And Sasuke hauled his massive hulking body onto the straining frame of his bed. He could not imagine the horror that would await him in the morning. Nor could he comprehend the consequences of his actions on this night.

Or how they would affect everyone, he had _ever_, known.

**A/N: **Please tell me what you think of it ... I need to know if I should continue and -seeing as how I'm indecisive- I need you guys to help me decide.  
Ph. and if you see any spelling or grammatical errors, please PM me -I suck at grammer-


End file.
